A.J. DiCintio: Not All the Perfumes of Arabia

I used to characterize Bill and Hillary Clinton as "Mr. and Mrs. MacBeth," an error which I now repent; for when it comes to allowing one's every desire and ambition to run amok unrestrained by even the smallest check of conscience, the modern duo make the king and queen of old look like pikers.

Think of it. No sooner had MacBeth transgressed than he revealed the moral self-awareness to ask, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand?" Lady Macbeth, the cold blooded pragmatist who stiffened her husband's spine by counseling him that "a little water clears us of this deed," resisted the pangs of conscience a bit longer than did her husband but soon succumbed to its power as evidenced in her admission during a guilt-induced sleepwalking that "all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." In contrast to the vilely ambitious thane and his power-panting wife, the Clintons pursuer their megalomaniac ambitions from minds apparently devoid of the least bit of conscience or shame.

The latest example of this truth occurred only yesterday as the former President gave a speech to students at the American University of Dubai, asserting that the invasion of Iraq was "a big mistake." After conceding that removing Saddam Hussein from power might have been a "a good thing," he added, "I don't agree with what was done."

These words from the same President Clinton who informed us in 1998 that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to world security because of his WMD programs, commenting that "The best way to end that threat once and for all is with a new Iraqi government." The same former President Clinton who, having supported the war until the polls turned against it in the past few months, fouled the air in Dubai with odious Monday morning quarterbacking as he attacked the current administration for its decision to "dismantle the whole authority structure of Iraq" and for failing to leave Iraq's "fundamental military and social and police structure intact."

Except for the slavish political ideologues who excused Mr. Clinton's perjury to enhance his chances of winning a sexual harassment lawsuit properly brought against him by a U.S. citizen, his unleashing of a "nuts and sluts" campaign against his accuser and other women whom he had assaulted or otherwise harmed, and his consistent betrayal of fellow Democrats as ordinary behavior of the "they all do it" kind, can there be one person left in America who will now deny the truth spoken by Vietnam veteran and former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey that Bill Clinton is nothing more than an "usually good liar."

Can there be one person left who fails to see Clinton's rank and cowardly attack, made on foreign soil, especially the soil of the Middle East, the home to Islamic terror-fascists who threaten all of civilization including our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, as another vile instance of Mr. Clinton's reacting to polls to gain a political advantage with his modus operandi of lying any lie, betraying any friend, denying any principle, and slurring any slur.

Can there be one person left who refuses to believe that Clinton's contemptible remarks were made (as were all his past political acts) in a sordid partnership with his wife, who herself having voted for and supported the Iraq War when she deemed it expedient to insulate herself against the charge of being labeled a typically effete Liberal, now seeks to reinvent herself once again by groveling before poll numbers to associate herself with Senator Feingold, a politician who wasn't reading and agonizing over polls right up to the moment he cast his vote.

Can there be one person left who, recognizing the critical importance of the debate the nation must engage regarding Iraq, terrorism, our borders, immigration, and a host of other concerns ranging from the role of the judiciary to realities regarding the Federal budget, will not agree that to have even a chance of resolving these problems satisfactorily, we must purge from our discourse the politics-at-any-price, perniciously egotistical ethos with which Bill and Hillary Clinton have infected American politics.

Much of the job of ridding the nation of this dangerous ethos lies in the hands of Democrats, who would do their party and, more important, the nation a service of inestimable value by telling the truth about a duo who play politics even with questions as fundamentally important as the Iraq war and the greater war against murderous fascists who hate every principle we hold dear. In making a decision about how they will react to the Clintons, Democrats will, of course, follow or ignore the urgings of their consciences. But whatever they decide, one thing is certain: Not all the perfumes of Arabia will keep the great majority of Americans from turning their faces, disgusted, at the stench which the Clintons have brought to American politics.